Harnessing the Trump base’s intensity: There will be an app for that

1. Trump campaign to unveil new app

President Donald Trump’s die-hard supporters are famously loyal to the President, and CNN’s Dana Bash reports the President’s reelection campaign is looking for ways to harness their intensity to find new supporters.

“Campaign manager Brad Parscale tells me he just hired a tech firm to build a new app — which he says will be used to encourage people who sign up for Trump rallies to work harder to build the Trump database,” Bash said. “You want a better seat at a rally? Sign up 10 friends. A picture with the President? Sign up a lot more.”

Parscale is hoping to roll out the app this summer.

“The unabashed goal is to take advantage of Trump supporters’ desire to get close to him and harness connections between friends in order to allow the campaign to better data mine for voters,” Bash said.

2. Trump’s 2020 kickoff

Meanwhile, Trump says he’ll kick off his reelection bid on June 18 with a big rally in Orlando.

New York Times reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis said she’s watching for whether he runs as a sitting president, or again as a disruptive outsider.

“How does he run as the insurgent when he is the incumbent?” Davis asks. “We all know he likes to be the underdog and the insurgent, and it will be interesting to see what he does and how the Democrats respond to that.”

3. Biden’s challenge

The Biden campaign has a similar challenge: how to convince voters that a candidate with decades of experience in Washington is also the one who can fix Washington.

“June is one of the most important months for Joe Biden,” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny said. “Other candidates in the next 10 days are trying to get attention to make sure they make it to the debate stage,” and attacking Biden is a sure way to get the press to pay attention to you.

Biden will be back on the trail this week with plans to interact much more with primary voters.

“He’s going to New Hampshire on Tuesday to take questions, after facing some criticism for perhaps not campaigning hard enough or taking enough questions for voters,” Zeleny said.

4. Kavanaugh’s views on abortion

Opponents of abortion rights have Roe v. Wade in their sights, and they think Brett Kavanaugh may be the fifth vote they’ve been waiting for to overturn it. Shawna Thomas from Vice News says we might get a signal this week on whether they’re right.

The Supreme Court could announce on Monday whether it will take up a challenge to a 2014 Louisiana law that makes it much harder to operate clinics that provide abortions.

“If they do, then it’s the first time in years that we’ll really see one of these abortion cases get to the Supreme Court,” Thomas said. “This isn’t one that would fully overturn Roe v. Wade, but it will give us a chance to see Kavanaugh in action.”

5. Trump’s China challenge

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Politico’s Eliana Johnson says she’s watching for whether the White House in any way marks the occasion.

“President Trump has made China a central part of his economic and foreign policy, but he has not focused on human rights,” Johnson said. “So it will be interesting to see whether this becomes an increasing focus, given that it was such a central focus of American foreign policy in previous administrations.”